


"He has so much love to give, won't you just take some of it?"

by HoransPayne



Series: NiamNetwork Themes [8]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-20
Updated: 2016-12-20
Packaged: 2018-09-10 17:38:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8926240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HoransPayne/pseuds/HoransPayne
Summary: "Here comes Santa, guys!"





	

Niall sighed as he stared down at the artificial ears with pointed tips down in his hands. He glanced up at his reflection in the mirror above the sink in the department store toilets so he could place them over his own ears. As saw the young man staring back at him with the same bright blue eyes, he was rather thankful for the fact he'd moved recently, and that it meant none of his friends would see him like this. Niall was fully kitted out in a bright green hat and coat, brimmed with white, and red shorts with red and white striped socks, and those curly green shoes one would associate with Santa's Elves. He'd just moved to Birmingham from Ireland, and this was the first job he could manage to find; rather easily considering how close to Christmas it was. Today was his first day and he'd been dreading it, but being so desperate to find work quickly, he was willing to accept the offer. 

He stomped out of the toilets, smacking his feet on the floor and almost turning red when he realised there were little bells on each shoe. He walked over to the lift, pressing the button engraved with the little number five and waited for it to take him there. Upon arrival on the fifth floor he followed the signs pointing him towards Santa's Grotto and he was surprised by the scene he was greeted with. It was pretty impressive, and larger than Niall had expected. He entered a kind of atrium, with a large winter wonderland type thing in the centre. There was fake snow, snowmen, reindeer and trees all over. It was encompassed by a circle of little rooms, mostly filled with Christmas trees, and one containing a red box on the wall, labelled "Santa's postbox". There were little Christmas lights danced around the whole thing, and the main lights had been turned down so they glowed. In the top of the circle was a large chair, surrounded by two more Christmas trees, decorated with coloured lights, obviously there for Father Christmas himself. Christmas music was playing quietly in the background. 

He spotted a few people dressed in the same attire he was over in one corner of the grotto, and he so wandered over to join them. They all turned to look at him upon hearing the little bells on his feet ringing with each step. He saw a short, blonde woman who looked to be in the same sour mood as Niall, a tall, dark haired woman with an unreadable expression and a short, plump man with a huge grin on his face. 

"Hey, you must be the other elf? So great to meet you, hope you're as excited as we are!" The man's face was rather red from glee as he reached to shake Niall's hand roughly. He spotted the blonde girl rolling her eyes at him, and Niall wanted to snicker. Clearly this guy was the only one excited for this job. 

"My name's Roger, that's Sarah-" he pointed to the dark haired girl and Niall nodded in her direction, but received nothing in return. "-and this is Caitlyn." Roger was now pointing towards the blonde girl, and Niall nodded at her too, but this time he got one back. "We're still waiting on old Saint Nick to arrive, but it should be anytime now!" He was almost jumping up and down as he said this, and Niall was reminded of Buddy from the film "Elf". Perhaps he was a real elf from the North Pole, and they were none the wiser. Niall laughed to himself at this thought. He spotted Caitlyn watching him with a sense of wonder, perhaps trying to figure out what Niall had laughed about. He gave her a smirk and she replied with a small smile. He thought perhaps Caitlyn would be a good friend in this job. A shriek from the little man beside them made all three elves jump. 

"Here comes Santa, guys!" 

"Chill, Roger, mate. No kids are here yet." Niall followed this new voice with his head and his eyes landed upon a tall man, kitted out in the bright red gear associated with Father Christmas, bushy white beard and all. It seemed as though the costume was stuffed full of pillows or something to make the man seem plumper than he was. 

"Sorry, I just get excited." Niall saw Caitlyn roll her eyes out of the corner of his eye. 

"We all know that, mate." The other man replied. He turned to meet Niall's eyes, and although his face was covered with a fake beard, and he has his Santa hat sunk rather low, his deep, brown eyes shone through and Niall couldn't help but notice how attractive he was. 

"Oh! Niall this is Liam, Liam this is Niall." Roger introduced the two men. Liam looked Niall up and down slowly, examining every part of his body slowly and Niall had never felt so self conscious. Liam eventually met Niall's eyes again and smiled at him, licking his lips slowly. Niall sighed internally as Liam shot him a wink and reached to shake his hand. He'd been involved with enough of Liam's type to know not to get involved; at least he was assuming Liam was that arrogant type that believed they were God's gift to this world. That was the kind of aura he was emitting right now. Nevertheless Niall shook his hand, but didn't return the grin Liam was giving him. 

"Okay, because we have a new worker, it may be a good idea to go through the rules again." Roger announced to the other four. Caitlyn groaned but laughed when she saw Liam bounce a little. 

"Yes, Roger! I agree!" He clapped his hands together loudly, rubbing them together. "Go on boy!" Roger grinned back, clearly missing the sarcasm laced in Liam's voice. 

"Okay..."

Niall zoned out a little as the little man went over the basic rules: be cheery, no swearing, stay in character, yadda yadda yadda. Mostly things one would assume for a job working around children. He didn't notice how close Liam was to him until he'd placed his arm over his shoulders. He tightly squeezed him before leaning down slightly to whisper in his ear. 

"You know, if you wanted to come sit on Santa's lap I wouldn't mind." Niall snapped his head quickly to look at Liam in shock, and his face quickly turned into one of disgust as he saw Liam give him another wink, smirking as he licked his lips again. 

"No thanks." Niall stepped away from him, removing his arm from his shoulder. It seemed as though Niall's first impression of the guy was correct. Jesus, the guy didn't even know Niall was gay, yet he was flirting with him anyway. Perhaps he thought that highly of himself that he could turn straight men gay. He gave Liam another look, and the smirk was still deeply engraved on his face. Niall was rather grateful when they had to take their positions to be ready for the first children filing into the department store. 

The day was just as boring as Niall had expected, and he'd underestimated how tiring it would be pretending to be cheery and energetic for each child. During their lunch break Liam had tried to make another move on Niall, purposefully sitting as close beside him as possible, and placing his hand higher up his thigh than Niall felt comfortable with. He'd pushed him off after Liam gave his leg a large squeeze.

 

\---

 

As the first week dragged on, the days seemed to pass on exactly the same as the first one. Niall would enter the store, change in the toilets, meet with the other elves, Roger would irritate them all, Liam would arrive late and make a move on Niall, they'd greet the kids, Liam would make another move at lunch, they'd greet more kids and Niall would escape to the toilets changing quickly before Liam could catch him again, then restart. He'd caught him once or twice as he was leaving, and he would always offer to walk Niall to wherever he was going. Niall declined each time. On the final day, he agreed to give Liam his number, unable to give a valid excuse for why not, and not being brave enough to tell him that he just didn't want to. He also didn't want to hurt the guys feelings, because Niall was a nice guy like that. He also couldn't give him a fake number because Liam called it straight away "so Niall could have his number", but really Liam probably thought Niall might give him a fake number. Liam had been texting Niall over and over with stupid things Niall didn't care about: "just took the dog for a walk, it's bloody freezing outside". Stuff like that followed by a series of kisses and some stupid emoji. 

Niall was finding it increasingly difficult to refuse Liam's advances, something about his smile and warm, brown eyes seemed to break his defences. He was even better looking than Niall had assumed, with his perfectly styled hair that matched the colour of his eyes, and the short beard sculpting his chiselled face, and the muscles that seemed to be bursting through any shirt he wore. It seemed almost a shame he had to cover all that up all day. When he watched him interacting so cutely with the children that came to see him, it really melted his heart. In the back of his mind Niall kept reminding himself Liam was probably the type looking for a quick shag or something, but something about his dumb texts was extremely endearing. Niall couldn't help but smile a little every time he saw his name pop up on his phone, or when hearing his deep, yet warm voice with the slight Brummie twinge. According to Caitlyn, who was a Brummie and proud of it, Liam was a "Yam Yam" because he hailed from the Black Country. She told Niall this in a mocking tone and earned a playful shove from Liam. 

 

\---

 

Upon entering one morning, Caitlyn immediately pulled Niall over to one side. He was quite shocked at this, Caitlyn not seeming the type to be so rough with people. 

"I want to ask you something, Niall." She began. 

"Do I have a choice?" She laughed at this. 

"No." Niall rolled his eyes playfully. 

"What is it then?"

"Are you gay?" His eyes widened at this. 

"Bit upfront aren't we?" 

"I know, sorry. But, I mean..." She cut herself off, and looked at Niall expectantly. 

"I mean, yeah I am. Why?" She smiled a little. 

"Because a certain jolly old guy as been whining to me about you." 

"Not very jolly then." Caitlyn laughed. 

"That's what I said to him." 

"What's he been complaining about?" Niall was quite surprised to hear that Liam had been talking to Caitlyn about. 

"Just that he's been trying desperately to ask you out but you blow him off every chance you get." Niall rolled his eyes. 

"I don't like guys like him." Caitlyn looked confused. 

"What's not to like? He's funny, he's kind, he's great with kids - as you've seen - and there's no denying that he's fit." Her cheeks became a little pinker as she spoke. "To be completely honest with you Niall, I'm a little jealous of you."

"You can have him." Niall huffed. 

"What have you got against him?" 

"I don't know." Niall shrugged. "Just gives off a vibe I don't like." He wanted to be careful; obviously Caitlyn and Liam were friends, and didn't want to insult him in front of her.

"What kind of vibe?" She cocked her head slightly to the left, brushing the strand of blonde hair that fell in front of her face as she did so behind her ear. Niall gave another small shrug. 

"He just seems that fuckboy type." Caitlyn looked shocked. "You know, the type to hit it and quit it. And that's not really what I'm looking for." Niall'd been with his fair few of those types and it never ended well for him. Caitlyn simply shook her head vigorously. 

"I can assure you he's nothing like that at all!" 

"I don't know, that's just the vibe he gives off." 

"I know he can seem a little arrogant at first, but I promise you he isn't." Her face had turned serious, and Niall knew he should listen carefully to what she was about to say. "Liam is literally one of the most loving people I've ever met. He's extremely caring and down to earth. I don't even think he's ever had a one night stand. Once he's set his heart on someone, he'll exhaust himself in any way to get that person. When he goes for a person, it's always because he's trying to get into their hearts, not their trousers. He has so much love to give, won't you just take some of it?"

"Pretty deep." Niall laughed sarcastically. "So, you're his wingwoman?" 

"Niall!" She gave him a light smack on the shoulder, as if to show him how serious she was being. 

"Sorry, sorry. I guess you've successfully pimped out your guy." She rolled her eyes. 

"Just give him a chance, okay? And please don't break his heart. It's so big that it seems to take extra long to heal compared to other people." 

Niall didn't get a chance to give Caitlyn an answer to whether he would give Liam a chance, before Roger was calling them all over to start work. He was rather thankful, for he wasn't even sure how he'd answer her. He needed the day to mull it over. At lunch he sacrificed his eardrums, and his head, by sitting with Roger so he wouldn't have to sit with Liam or Caitlyn, and he probably broke some world record for fastest changer at the end of the day when he rushed out of the store, avoiding everyone. 

Niall stayed awake in bed, tossing and turning, nervous to go to work the next day. He was tempted to call in sick so he could avoid Caitlyn and Liam, but he wasn't quite sure why. He was considering saying yes to Liam, but he had a lot of anxiety in the back of his mind that perhaps Caitlyn was lying and Liam really did just want him for a cheap fuck. But would someone really go to all this effort for a shag? Maybe. Maybe not. Niall couldn't decide. 

 

\---

 

In the end, Niall had to call in sick because he'd thrown up from all his worrying. Caitlyn had texted him calling him a wimp, and that Liam had received the message loud and clear. Niall felt rather guilty because Caitlyn was clearly upset with him, and Liam hadn't texted him all day. He really missed it. 

After the required forty eight hours off, Niall was extremely nervous to enter the store. Caitlyn looked pretty angry with him when he arrived, and she pulled him over to one side with a dirty look. 

"Look who decided to show up."

"Leave it. I genuinely was sick."

"You know, Niall, for some reason I just don't believe you."

"Hey, just chill out okay, you don't even know me!" Niall was a little irritated by her attitude; they had only known each other a few short weeks, and he was also quite cranky from the lack of sleep he'd been getting. 

"Whatever Niall. Liam's really upset. Do you really think he'd put so much effort into trying to speak to you, just so he could shag you? Like I told you, and like I'm sure you've noticed, he's an attractive guy. He doesn't have to beg it off some guy to get a quick fuck if that's what he wants." She shook her head at him, and Niall sighed. She did have point. Liam didn't need Niall, it's not like he was special or anything. "He was so excited to see you the other day, he wanted to ask you out on a date and had a big speech planned, but then you just didn't show up because you were too wet. It really hurt him."

"Hey just leave it, okay? I'm not in the mood, if you don't want to believe that I was ill then that's your problem!" The anger Niall was feeling towards Caitlyn was easily overpowered by the pang of guilt he was hit with by her comment. He didn't mean to hurt Liam in any way. 

 

\---

 

Niall had to wait until the end of the day to try and catch Liam, he had avoided him at lunch. 

"Liam, wait!" Niall had caught him just as he was leaving to go home. He was in his own clothes now, just a simple black hoodie and grey trackie bottoms, but Niall couldn't deny how good he looked regardless. 

"Oh, hi Niall. Are you feeling better?" Niall noticed the little twinkle in his eye had now faded, and it broke Niall's heart. 

"Um, not really." 

"Oh, sorry to hear that." 

"I just feel really guilty." Liam's face scrunched up in confusion. 

"Guilty? What about?"

"Well, Caitlyn chewed me out this morning. She seems pretty sore because she thinks I was lying about being ill." 

"Why would that make you feel guilty?" 

"Because apparently I upset you."

"Oh, no Niall. It's fine. You don't have to worry about me. I understand, mate. You don't like me back, that's fine, I don't expect you to feel guilty about that."

"But I do! Because you don't understand, Liam. I promise you I was ill. Caitlyn gave me this big speech the other day about you, and why I should give you a chance, and I just kept thinking about it and worrying and it made me ill. I promise you."

"Oh. I'm sorry about Caitlyn. I'll try and get her to leave you alone."

"No, Liam! I'm starting to think she has a point." Liam furrowed his thick, rectangular eyebrows. 

"A point about what?"

"I mean, maybe I should give you a chance?" He phrased it almost as a question. "I mean, only if you want me to." Liam simply beamed back at him. 

"Yeah! Of course I do, Niall." Niall grinned back. 

"Well, I'm glad."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. This was written for theme 8 for NiamNetwork: Christmas! I based the Santa's Grotto off the House of Fraser one in Birmingham. I've not actually been to that one, but I looked up a video of it. I wanted it to be one in Birmingham, because I wanted to keep it Midlands based, and the only city people not from the Midlands seem to know is Brum. Also, I've only ever been to 2 in my hometown city but I don't really remember them. I am actually going to one tomorrow with work though lmao. 
> 
> Anyway no one cares about that. Thanks again for reading, I really appreciate it. Sorry for the low quality. I wrote this really quickly and on my phone so there may be some typos that I haven't noticed. Make sure you check out the NiamNetwork on Tumblr for stuff much better than this!


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